Ryan at home.

Here are just a few new pictures of our sweet baby. I'm so glad to finally have him here with us!

Simon was never this little!

Ryan's Mad face!

Me and my boys!

Just for fun!

Since Ryan came into our lives about 2 weeks ago, Simon and I have been spending some quality time together too. Here are some pics from the last 2 weeks.

Here we are making yummy peanut butter cookies for dad. We got a new set of about 30 animal shaped cookie cutters. Simon got to cut them out and I put them on the pan to cook. Needless to say, we both ended up covered in flour!

This is Simon's first fruit loop necklace! (well, this one wasn't exactly made by Simon.) Simon got really good at stringing the fruit loops onto the yarn but once they made it on they got eaten right away. Mom had to make a second necklace for him to wear. ;o)

I am such a proud mommy! Little Simon put this puzzle together with only a little help from me. I would tell him where the peices went and he put them together! After we were done we played a game that came with the puzzle. I would hand him a letter and he would have to find it on the puzzle. He had so much fun.

Our newest adventure has been "The Letter of the Day". We just started this on Friday. Our first letter was "A". Here is Simon playing with an Ant with an Apple.

He's Here At Last!

On Tuesday, September 2nd we welcomed a new addition to our family. Little Ryan Kelly Hall weighed in at 8 pounds 2 ounces, he was 19 inches long, and he was 2 weeks early! I wonder if he would have been bigger than his brother if we would have left him to cook for another 2 weeks. He is a beautiful baby boy and we love having him here with us.

Simon is loving having baby Ryan at home. He gives him kisses all day and loves it when he gets to hold him. He comes in every morning, gets his little stool, and climbs up by the bassinet to see if the baby is awake. He is going to be the best big brother!

As for me, I am recovering well. I am so greatful that the doctor induced labor early. The delivery went so much easier with a smaller baby. This is my third day home alone with the boys and I am learning to multi-task in everything that I do.

The most amazing part of this story is that when Ryan was born the doctor found 2 knots in his umbilical cord! The doctor and the nurses were are absolutely amazed that we had no complications in the pregnancy or delivery. They were even calling him a "miracle baby". We are so blessed in our family and times like this really help us to appreciate everything that we have been given.

We love you Ryan!

I can almost feel fall

August 21, 2008

Though the days are still reaching blood boiling temperatures of 108 degrees almost every day, I am starting to get the feeling fall is around the corner. The sun is shining in a different way. And most of all, I am getting the craft bug again. Last week I finished 2 bleach stencil shirts for Simon.

He loved the robot shirt so much that he didn't even want to wait for it to dry to wear it. And he has been asking to wear "robot shirt" almost every day since. If you can't see it very well, the bottom of the shirt says "Do the Robot"

I am so glad that Melesa and I learned how to do bleach stencilling. It is so easy and fun!

Most of my other projects have been for the baby (who is due in 3 1/2 weeks!) I made 2 nursing covers, a baby sling, a cover for my boppy pillow, a crocheted blanket and a quilt. The 2 blankets I finished last month. I also just completed an over-the-door organizer for Simon's room. I made it completely out of placemats I found on clearance.

In other news, we finally have our home to ourselves. We love having company but it sure is nice to have the house semi-quiet again. We do miss the occasional guitar hero wars.

Yep that's Jesse. He is the ultimate Guitar Hero!! We don't even stand a chance against the champ. He is off at EAC meeting girls and feeding his brain.

Marie has been out of the house for a while. She and Aimee will be moving into a house at the beginning of September. Until then, Marie is staying at her apartment until the month is over.

Not much else has happened the last month. We are still anticipating our baby coming soon. We got a few 3D ultrasound pics of the little guy at our last appointment. That was a pleasant surprise since normally they charge about $100 for the 3D ultrasounds and she gave them to us at no charge! Woo hoo! Look at those chubby cheeks.

Simon has been so much fun these days. He is getting pretty good at counting to 10. He also has been singing his favorite songs non-stop. Some of them I didn't know that he knew. He was singing "eat, eat, eat, apples, nanas" yesterday. What a smarty.

Jeremiah has been staying busy at work. They just made him the dispatcher for his office. He has held so many titles at this company he could probably run the whole thing on his own ;o). They love him over there and he works very hard for the company.

That's it for now. Hopefully the next post will have pics of our new baby.

4th of July Trip to Round Valley

We had so much fun for the 4th of July this year. Simon and Jeni traveled to Eagar a few days before the celebration to hang out with the family. The best part was Melesa and Brett and there two little boys came all the way from Iowa to visit. We spent lots of time just hanging out and playing with the kids. Any spare time was spent playing guitar hero! Everyone was hooked on that game by the time we left.

Simon LOVED playing with his cousins. It was so fun to see Kimble. He's such a cute little guy. We even got to see some of his first steps.

In this picture Simon had been crying because he didn't want to share the boat with the baby. He kept saying "no baby" and trying to push him out of the boat. Little Kimble handled it so well. We finally got a shot with all 3 boys in the boat!

Jackson and Simon ended up being best buds by the end of the trip. They even got to go crawdad fishing for the first time. And, just like little independant kids do, they fought and fought. Simon was so sad to see Jackson leave. He even found a "little people" toy the other day and told us that it was Jackson (it had Jackson's haircut). ;o) He sure misses his cousins.
We all loved the parade. We loved seeing Simon's reaction to the horses, fire engines, and especially the helicoptors that flew over!
Then it was off to the family picnic. We enjoyed each other's food and company in the cool weather. The kids got to eat the candy and play with the toys that they got at the parade.

If you look close you can see that Jeni is almost 7 months pregnant.

After the celebration we had family pictures taken. We had to hurry because Heidi had to leave town so she could fly out to Mexico the next morning. After a few shots Simon decided that he had enough of sitting still and wanted to play in the irrigation ditch. Jeremiah took off his shoes and played in the water with him!

I had to share this picture with all of you. This is Jesse and Mom going for a motorcycle ride! I love it!

Can't wait until next year!

The wading pool

Oh how I hate being pregnant in the summer! Yesterday was around 113 degrees here in Mesa! Hot hot hot! Simon and I spent our day running errands and playing in his little swimming pool in the backyard. Thank heavens for that little pool. He has a little slide that he slides down into the water. He mostly uses it for his trucks and trains ;o).

We are all getting excited to see Melesa and Brett soon. They just got to Utah to visit Brett's family and soon they will be here in AZ. I can't wait to see how much little Kimble has grown and I have a feeling that Simon and Jackson will be best buddies. Simon loves his older cousins. He gets so excited to see Keaton and Everett when they are in town! Not much else is going on with us this week. Jesse is thrilled to be getting his first Motorcycle on Friday and Jeremiah is working hard as always. I am just counting down the weeks until we get our new little boy. It is hard work chasing around a 2 year old and trying to keep up with life all while being pregnant.